There are an increasing number of broadcasters that provide local language support for their programming. These broadcasters are often motivated by factors such as government mandates and competitive pressures to provide programs in local languages. The size of a broadcaster's potential audience and the viewer loyalty of that potential audience can be increased by providing programs in local languages.
Typically, local language support is implemented by adding a new language track to a media clip. The term “track” broadly refers to a collection of time-dependent data that is associated with a single media type. A media clip is a collection of one or more associated media tracks. The conventional approaches to adding a new language track to a media clip include the stacking approach and the program copy model.
The stacking approach refers to stacking two or more language tracks in a predefined order within a media clip. This approach usually involves sending a copy of the media clip to a dubbing house where a new audio track is created for each required language. The new audio tracks are then stacked into the media clip in a predefined order. The order in which the audio tracks are stacked determines the order in which the audio tracks are played during a broadcast. For this reason, the stacking order of the languages must be carefully managed to avoid confusion and errors. The management of the stacking order is typically a time-consuming process because the dubbing house must lay down a new audio track second-for-second against the video track and the broadcaster must then validate the stacking order.
The program copy model refers to making a separate copy of the media clip for each desired language. Like the stacking approach, the program copy model also typically involves sending a copy of the media clip to a dubbing house where a new audio track is created for each required language. Instead of stacking the new audio tracks in the media clip, however, a separate copy of the media clip is generated for each language. These separate copies of the media clip must be carefully managed to avoid broadcasting errors.
These two conventional approaches to adding a new language track to a media clip involve similar problems. They are both time-consuming because they typically include sending a copy of the media track to a dubbing house where new audio tracks are laid down second-for-second against the video track. In addition, the management of media clips is more complex because, in the case of the stacking approach, the stacking order must be managed, and, in the case of program copy model, multiple copies of the same program must be managed.